Real Time Opera (RTO) is a performing arts organization dedicated to the production of new opera. Founded in 2002, it is based in Contoocook,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and Oberlin,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and produces opera across the United States, engaging professional singers and a range of instrumental ensembles for performances at a wide variety of venues.

Past Productions

The first season in 2003 presented a workshop of Korczak's Orphans by Adam Silverman and Susan Gubernat based on the life of the famous Polish children's doctor, orphanage director and Holocaust martyr,

Janusz Korczak Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit (22 July 1878 or 1879 – 7 August 1942), was a Polish Jewish educator, children's author and pedagogue known as ''Pan Doktor'' ("Mr. Doctor") or ''Stary Doktor'' ("Old Doctor"). After spending ma ...

. It was performed at the

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Opera House in New Hampshire and in May 2004 was presented at

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, du ...

as part of VOX 2004: Showcasing American Composers. It continues to have workshopped performances at Opera Theatre of Brooklyn. Hawaiian Tan Ratface with words and music by

John Trubee John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

was premiered in February, 2004, at San Francisco's

Studio Z A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design, ...

, accompanied by the Ugly Janitors of America with choreography by Carl Franzoni. Feynman is a new opera by composer Jack Vees, Operations Director of the

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

Center for Studies in Music Technology, and librettist Paul Schick. Its subject is the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and cult figure

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superflu ...

. A percussion quartet provides the orchestra backing a solo Dr. Feynman onstage. The premiere was performed at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, CT, in June 2005, and subsequent tour of New England was performed by SO Percussion and baritone Michael Cavalieri. In December 2005, Feynman was restaged in New York City at the

Knitting Factory The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States. The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...

, with lighting and video design by Barry Steele and scenery design by Damen Mroczek. Future performances are in planning. Leave me Alone! was written by Dan Plonsey to a new libretto by

Harvey Pekar Harvey Lawrence Pekar (; October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010) was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical ''American Splendor'' comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a ...

who is perhaps best known for his series of autobiographical comic books and the subsequent movie: ''

American Splendor ''American Splendor'' is a series of autobiographical comic books written by Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists. The first issue was published in 1976 and the last one in September 2008, with publication occurring at irregular interva ...

''. It premiered January 31, 2009 at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

. RTO premiered four Pop-Up Operas in their 2012-2013 season, all designed by Cleveland artist Don Harvey, filmed and edited by Ted Sikora for online presentation. The first, Double Figure, is a translation of a Paul Celan poem by Paul Schick, performed outside

Cleveland Public Theater Cleveland Public Theatre is a theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a spe ...

in November 2012, starring Phil Wong (tenor) and Elaine Daiber (soprano). Frozen Community premiered on Main Street Oberlin,

in May 2013 composed by Randy Woolf with text by Robin Stranahan, music by The Bits, and dance/choreography by Ladia Yates. Silent Chorus by David Mahler was performed in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, PA in June 2013 by Stephen Ng (tenor) Paradox is an

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...

opera composed by

Larry Polansky Larry Polansky (born 1954) is a composer, guitarist, mandolinist, and professor emeritus at Dartmouth College and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a founding member and co-director of Frog Peak Music (a composers' collective) He c ...

to a text by Patrick Graybill, performed by Monique Holt with interpretation by Tim Chamberlain, music performed by Daniel Goode, Randall Chaves-Camacho and Dan King in August 2013.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
NOVA is composed by Lewis Nielson to a libretto by Paul Schick, directed by Jonathon Field and premiered during

’s Big Box series 2014.

Additional Works and Commissions

A House in Bali an opera by composer

Evan Ziporyn Evan Ziporyn (b. Chicago, Illinois, December 14, 1959) is an American composer of post-minimalist music with a cross-cultural orientation, drawing equally from classical music, avant-garde, various world music traditions, and jazz. Ziporyn h ...

and librettist Paul Schick, first produced in 2009. ''A House in Bali'' is based on the autobiographical book by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

composer

Colin McPhee Colin Carhart McPhee (March 15, 1900 – January 7, 1964) was a Canadian-American composer and ethnomusicologist. He is best known for being the first Western composer to make a musicological study of Bali, and developing American gamelan along ...

. Performances in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

have combined the traditional Balinese

gamelan Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...

and dancers with Western musicians from the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Hu Tong is an opera composed by Kui Dong to a libretto by Paul Schick, based on a book by Monica Datta. It's slated to premiere in 2019.

External links

Real Time Opera (''Official site'')

Korczak's Orphans opera

SO Percussion

Footnotes

{{authority control American opera companies Contemporary music organizations Music organizations based in the United States Musical groups established in 2002 2002 establishments in the United States